Nearly two years after the shooting death of 38-year-old Devon Anderson, no criminal charges will be filed by the Fulton County district attorney’s office against Melvin Potter, the off-duty Atlanta police officer who killed the budding musician.
Anderson’s mother, Valerie Lans-Anderson, learned of the decision last month. On June 22, she asked the Atlanta City Council’s Public Safety And Legal Administration Committee why Potter is still employed by the city.
“This man is still not fired. And I don’t feel you’re doing anything about it,” she said. “August 5th, in two months, is going to make two years since Melvin Potter murdered my son.”
In an email, the Atlanta Police Department confirmed that Potter is still employed as an officer and remains on paid administrative duty. The department’s Office of Professional Standards will now conduct its own internal administrative investigation. APD Deputy Chief Jason Smith told council members that he did not have a time frame for the internal investigation but said the department hopes to have it expedited.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation led the investigation into the incident. The decision not to prosecute him, however, was made by the Fulton County district attorney’s office.
The DA’s office did not respond to Capital B Atlanta’s request for comment.
What happened to Devon Anderson?
From a preliminary investigation, the GBI concluded that Potter had been at a bar in South Fulton the night of Aug. 5, 2024, and was escorting someone to their car when an argument broke out between him and another group of people. The argument escalated, and Potter shot and killed Anderson.
The GBI did not mention if Anderson had been involved in the argument.
In an interview with Capital B Atlanta two months after the shooting, Lans-Anderson said she spoke with witnesses who said her son was attempting to de-escalate the argument between Potter and the other group before he was killed.
According to the incident report created by South Fulton Police, when officers responded just after 1 a.m. to reports of gunshots in the parking lot outside Harold’s Chicken and Ice Bar on Old National Highway, Potter declined to take a blood alcohol test, which he is legally allowed to do. After South Fulton officers obtained a warrant from a judge to collect a blood sample from him, Potter also refused.
Potter was then arrested and charged with willful obstruction of law enforcement, a misdemeanor. Fulton County Jail records show he was released hours later on a $1,000 bond.
Devin Barrington-Ward, a community organizer and vocal advocate for the Anderson family, said he was disappointed but not surprised by the district attorney’s decision not to prosecute the off-duty officer in connection with the 2024 shooting.
“The blue line is something that extends to officers whether they’re in uniform or not,” Barrington-Ward said.
Also troubling for family and supporters was the news that August 2024 was not the first time Potter had been in trouble or even refused a Breathalyzer test since becoming an Atlanta police officer in 2015.
“I think if we just look at Officer Potter’s history, this could have been prevented had we held him accountable for his previous infractions,” Barrington-Ward said.
Seeking accountability
After the 2024 shooting of Anderson, Barrington-Ward began looking into Potter’s record and found he had been under investigation for domestic violence in 2017 while in a relationship with a female APD officer. Potter was not charged as a result of the investigation.
Then in June 2021, Potter was pulled over on Interstate 85 for driving over 100 mph by Josh Marich, a Coweta County sheriff’s deputy. According to the body-camera footage, Potter identified himself to Marich as an Atlanta police officer and told him, “We’re on the same team.”
When Potter refused a blood alcohol test, and then a field sobriety test, Marich arrested him on suspicion of DUI. Potter was convicted of DUI in a Coweta County courtroom the following year.
APD confirmed that Potter was reprimanded and suspended 21-days without pay following the DUI conviction but declined to comment further.
Last year, Marich spoke at an Atlanta City Council meeting to tell council members that Potter tried to use his position as a law enforcement officer to avoid accountability for his actions the night he was arrested for DUI.
“The uniform should never be a shield from consequences,” Marich said. “It should be a symbol of accountability.”
The 2024 shooting that killed Anderson was, in his opinion, a consequence of ignored warning signs and APD failing to enforce its high standards for Potter’s previous infractions.
The decision to pursue charges against an officer for misconduct while on or off duty ultimately lies with the district attorney’s office, which also relies on police investigations to prosecute the majority of its cases. Barrington-Ward said he believes that across the country, that relationship looms over investigations and indictment decisions in cases where an officer is accused of wrong-doing.
“There is a practice of district attorneys being very hesitant or unwilling to hold law enforcement accountable for egregious behavior, and Officer Potter is an example of that,” Barrington-Ward said.
Still, advocates question District Attorney Fani Willis’ willingness to charge APD officers — in part — because she was endorsed by the Atlanta Police Union when she was elected DA in 2020. The police union did not endorse Willis or any other candidate during her 2024 reelection campaign.
Speaking to Capital B Atlanta last August, Willis has dismissed the idea that she considers law enforcement’s reaction if she does choose to charge an officer.
“I don’t care how pissed off police departments get at me. If we find that the police officer violated the law or violated their oath, we bring those charges. I have not been afraid either way,” she said.
Consequences rarely last
Potter is hardly the first Atlanta police officer to avoid trial after a fatal shooting.
Last year, a Fulton County grand jury declined to bring charges against Kiran Kimbrough, the former officer who got into a physical altercation that killed 62-year-old Johnny Hollman. And even when officers are indicted, often the charges don’t stick.
Nine months after he shot and killed Jimmy Atchison in 2018, officer Sung Kim retired from the Atlanta police force, a move that allowed him to retain his employee benefits even if he was eventually charged. Two years later, Kim was indicted by a Fulton County grand jury on charges of murder, aggravated assault, involuntary manslaughter and violation of oath.
Last year, a federal judge dismissed all charges against Kim, calling the shooting “textbook self-defense.” Atchinson was unarmed when he died.
Even if officials fail to enforce accountability, the Atlanta Citizen Review Board is supposed to be able to investigate thoroughly and recommend appropriate sanctions to the police department when justified. The city-funded body was created in 2007 to boost civilian oversight of the police department after APD officers killed 92-year Kathryn Johnston in her home while executing an illegal “no knock” warrant.
The review board has had its own set of problems, however.
Last January, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution published an investigation showing the board hadn’t investigated any of the 39 deadly-force incidents involving police officers since 2020, when the City Council expanded their power. In response, the review board and the police department agreed to new protocols designed to prompt consistent investigations into uses of deadly-force.
On March 12, the review board completed its first investigation into a police shooting, nearly two decades after it was founded.
The board unanimously voted to clear both officers in the fatal shooting of Nygil Cullins at a Buckhead steakhouse in May 2022.
An ACRB official confirmed via email they have an active investigation involving Potter.
Despite the challenges, Lans-Anderson vowed to continue coming to City Hall and demanding Potter be fired for as long as it takes.
“If it needs to be five, six, 10 years from now. I’m not going anywhere until I get justice for my son, and I’m not going to stop until the whole of Georgia — the world — knows about murdering Melvin,” she said.
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